Blurb:After going past the point of no return and finally reaching breaking point, the only thing Matthew Elliott can do now is start over.

Matthew Elliott is a recovering man. As an ex-cop and ex-fighter, his new job teaching kids at the local community gym about drug awareness and self-defense, is a little bit of both. His new focus on helping street kids is helping him heal, and with Kira by his side, he’s making strides.

Brother and sister, Rueben and Claudia, are homeless kids and they’re very much alone. As they strike a chord with Matt, he does everything in his power to help them. But when Ruby and Claude need more help than he bargained for, it stops being about work, and starts being about home.

The day he met Kira, Matt’s life changed direction, and it’s only now he realizes that everything he’s been through was a lead up to this. It was never about endings. His life, his purpose, was just beginning.Continue reading →

As guilt plagues him, Matthew Elliott’s world begins to spiral out of control. The harder he holds on, the more it slips through his fingers, and he’s helpless to stop it.

Entering into the underground cage-fighting scene, he starts out fighting for what’s right. The deeper he gets, the more guilt consumes him – the more pain he takes for his penance, and he’s soon fighting for more than justice.

He’s fighting for love.

He’s fighting for his life.

The third edition has a new cover and has been re-edited, though no new content has been added.Continue reading →

Blurb:Matthew Elliot is one of LA’s best detectives—a smart, tough, closeted gay man. When he falls for his gym instructor, it’s not his colleagues he should be worried about finding out…it’s the bad guys.

Matthew Elliot is one of LA’s best detectives. He’s been labelled the golden boy of the Fab Four: a team of four detectives who’ve closed down drug-rings all over the city. He’s smart, tough and exceptionally good at his job.

He’s also a closeted gay man.

Enter Kira Takeo Franco, the new boxing coach at the gym. Matthew can’t deny his immediate attraction to the man his fellow cops know as Frankie. But in allowing himself to fall in love with a man known to his colleagues, Matthew risks outing them both.

Matt and Kira work to keep their relationship and private lives hidden from Matt’s very public life, fearing it would be detrimental to their careers.

But it’s not the other cops who Matthew should be worried about finding out his deepest, darkest secret…it’s the bad guys.Continue reading →

Morgan: I know you said you pre-plan passages that look difficult. This whole book looks difficult! What was your process for making sure all the words are pronounced correctly, giving each of the many characters a distinct voice and making sure it also fit with the previous narrations? (There are so many characters and strange names!)

SC: Mary’s books are steeped in Egyptian mythology and lore, so I have a few resources that I use to at least steer me in the right direction with pronunciations, including those that Mary herself has provided. I’ll leave it at saying definitively that there’s possibly a good chance that most of them are probably correct sometimes, on occasion…maybe. No, no, no, no need to double check that, just take my word for it. The characters are always so rich and diverse that after reading and prepping the book I supply them with the voice that I heard in my head. I am fortunate enough to have a very wild and fanciful imagination so often these things just flow rather copiously from my brain. It’s a cluttered and terrifying mess in there though, I advise against vacationing there – at the very least wear a fine pair of galoshes. I have a spreadsheet for practically every book I have narrated with plot info, character notes and assorted miscellany, sometimes linked to a sample sound file. This helps to keep me organized and on track most of the time.

Morgan: I know that you do your own sound mixing. Do you record the different dialog (accents) one at a time or as a conversation? (Do you switch back and forth or do that with editing?)

SC: I am an audio engineer as well as a voice talent. I spent many years as a musician and in studios learning how to make my terrible audio sound marginally less so prior to becoming a narrator and voice talent. When I track a book, I track and narrate as it is written, correcting mistakes that I make as they happen with a method known as punch/roll. I don’t like going back after the fact and trying to reclaim the same mood, pace and intensity afterwards. Of course, after the initial narration is proofed by the publisher a number of corrections come back anyway with things that I unknowingly mumbled, garbled, burped or just plain misread. I like to keep those as minimal as possible, however. So, in terms of conversations, with the character voices, textures and colors already in my wacky brain, I simply read through and switch characters as I go. It’s much more fun that way…sort of like a one person performance with a cast of dozens. Oh wait…it is.

Morgan: I know you said you are a fan of this series – how did you feel by the end of the narration?

SC: I always joke and say that my favorite part of any narration is “This concludes [book title] by [author]. Thanks for listening, now go play outside.” Of course at the end of Forging the Future there is a sense of relief felt by the lazy-want-to-be-in-my-pajamas-again me, and a sense of eager anticipation for the next book and for the story to continue for the Mary Calmes-lover me. Ah, who am I kidding? I’m pretty much always in my pajamas.

About Sean Crisden

I have been a professional voice artist since 2006 (wait, people pay me for this?) but my history extends further than that. As a child, I was known as “Radio Man” for the articulate, listenable qualities within my voice. I don’t know any other kid who took quite so much pleasure in standing up and reading out loud “Tikki Tikki Tembo” or “Bunnicula” for their class.

This lead to an early pursuit of performing and I performed for nearly a decade with the prog rock band Divided Sky as vocalist and guitar player. I have expanded my abilities into on-camera acting, appearing in numerous commercials and films including M. Night Shyamalan’s “The Last Airbender”. I was even fortunate enough to act in and choreograph the combat sequences in “Le Meduse Rouge”.

I continue to grow, develop and refine my talents in an ongoing effort to find fulfillment by drinking of my creative well. I also train in several martial arts and do my best despite the lure of my bed and apple pie to stay in excellent physical shape.

Blurb: Jin Church is back where he started, alone, wandering, and uncertain of his path. It’s not by choice but by circumstance, as he remembers he’s a werepanther… but not much else. He knows one thing for sure—he needs to find the beautiful blond man who haunts his dreams.

Logan Church is trapped in a living hell. His mate is missing, his tribe is falling apart, and he’s estranged from the son he loves with all his heart. His world is unraveling without his mate by his side, and he has no one to blame but himself.

If Jin can regain his memory and Logan can overcome the threats to his leadership, then perhaps they can resume their lives. The question is: Is that what they want? Back to the same house, the same tribe, the same troubles? They can choose from various roads leading to their future… or they can forge their own path.Continue reading →

Blurb: Exiled by his pack as a teen, Omega wolf Simon Moorehead learns to bury his gentle nature in the interest of survival. When a hulking, rough-faced Alpha catches Simon on pack territory, he tries to escape what he’s sure will be imminent death. But instead of killing him, the Alpha takes Simon home.

A man of action, Mitch Grant uproots his life to support his brother in leading the Blue Mountain pack. Mitch lives on the periphery, quietly protecting everyone, but always alone. A mate is a dream come true for Mitch, and he won’t let little things like Simon’s rejections, attacks, and insults get in their way. With patience, seduction, and genuine care, Mitch will ride out the storm while Simon slays his own ghosts and Mitch’s loneliness.Continue reading →

Ever since his longtime lover decided he’d seen the “heterosexual light,” Matt’s life has been in a nosedive. Six months of too many missed shifts at the hospital, too much booze, too many men. Matt knows he’s on the verge of losing everything, but he’s finding it hard to care.

Then Matt meets Aaron. He’s gorgeous, intelligent and apparently not interested in being picked up. Still, even after seeing Matt at his worst, he doesn’t turn away. Aaron’s kindness and respect have Matt almost believing he’s worth it-and that there could be life after Joe. But his newfound happiness is threatened when Matt begins to suspect Aaron is hiding something, or someone…Continue reading →

Blurb: Christmas is a time for giving – what do you do when no one gives a damn?

For Zachary Weston Christmas means sleeping on a churchyard bench in the freezing snow with nothing better in his future. Thrown out of his home for being gay, he is left without money or, it seems, anywhere to go.

Until a stranger shows him that some people do give a lot more than a damn.

Ben Hamilton is a rookie cop in his small home town. He finds a young throwaway, fresh from the city, sleeping on a bench in the churchyard on a snowy Christmas Eve. Can he be the one to give Zachary his own Christmas miracle?Continue reading →

Blurb: Stefan Joss just can’t win. Not only does he have to go to Texas in the middle of summer to be the man of honor in his best friend Charlotte’s wedding, but he’s expected to negotiate a million-dollar business deal at the same time. Worst of all, he’s thrown for a loop when he arrives to see the one man Charlotte promised wouldn’t be there: her brother, Rand Holloway.

Stefan and Rand have been mortal enemies since the day they met, so Stefan is shocked when a temporary cease-fire sees the usual hostility replaced by instant chemistry. Though leery of the unexpected feelings, Stefan is swayed by a sincere revelation from Rand, and he decides to give Rand a chance.

But their budding romance is threatened when Stefan’s business deal goes wrong: the owner of the last ranch he needs to secure for the company is murdered. Stefan’s in for the surprise of his life as he finds himself in danger as well.Continue reading →

Blurb: Forty-five-year-old English professor Nathan Qells is very good at making people feel important. What he’s not very good at is sticking around afterward. He’s a nice guy; he just doesn’t feel things the way other people do. So even after all the time he’s spent taking care of Michael, the kid across the hall, he doesn’t realize that Michael’s mob muscle uncle and guardian, Andreo Fiore, has slowly been falling in love with him. Dreo has bigger problems than getting Nate to see him as a potential partner.

He’s raising his nephew, trying to leave his unsavory job, and starting his own business, a process made infinitely more difficult when a series of hits takes out some key underworld players. Still, Dreo is determined to build a life he can be proud of – a life with Nate as a cornerstone. A life that is starting to look like exactly what Nate has been seeking. Unfortunately for Dreo – and for Nate – the last hits were just part of a major reorganization, and Dreo’s obvious love for Nate has made him a target too. Continue reading →